She doesn't remember a thing about it.

All she knows is that one minute, everything is good and right with the world. Her classmate, Nikkolai, has invited her over to his place to hang out.

It's still the middle of the afternoon – he has somehow convinced her to skip her afternoon classes (just this once), and all is quiet as they walk down the street just outside their campus. The nearly identical houses in this neighbourhood are all silent, with most of their residents still in classes, or hanging out with friends.

She remembers smiling, glad that they'll have a moment of peace and quiet, away from the constant hubbub of university life.

They step into his house, giggling about something or other. But the laughter drains out of her as she is greeted with three smiling faces. She knows about his housemates, of course. He talks about them all the time, and she thinks it's cute how close they are, almost like her Tsuna-nii and his guardians. But she had been told that they will be away today.

"Don't be scared, I-Pin," says Nikkolai's familiar voice from beside her, and she turns to see him smiling his usual sweet smile, the one that always makes her feel warm and flustered.

Today, however, it makes her heart stop, and her insides cold with fear.

"We're just going to have a little fun."

And then, after that...nothing.

A suspicious blank space in her mind's eye.

(Post-traumatic memory loss is what it's called, she later learns.)

And no matter how hard she tries, she can't think of what is supposed to be there.

Not that she tries very hard, to be honest.

It's something of a blessing that she doesn't remember what they did to her.

The aftermath alone is something right out of a nightmare.

Because she members waking up after that suspicious blank space in her memory.

And her whole body is throbbing with a dull, bone-deep ache. Her hips, especially, are bruised and sore, and when she tries to readjust herself, she feels a searing pain lance through her, like a knife tearing through flesh.

She takes deep breaths, trying not to panic.

And once she's got her pain under control, she notices several things at once.

One: she's in an unfamiliar bed, an unfamiliar room.

Two: it's no longer midday outside, but rather the middle of the night.

Three: she's completely naked.

Four:...There's someone in bed with her.

She stares at her bed-mate, cold, hard fear taking hold of her as comprehension dawns.

There lies sweet Nikkolai, his soft blond hair covering his face, and he's completely naked as well, save for the sheet slung across his bottom half, just a second away from slipping off the bed.

Biting her knuckle to stifle the sob that wants to escape her, she tumbles off the bed in her attempt to get away from him as fast as humanly possible, and falls to the floor with a thump.

Thankfully, he continues to sleep, just like all his housemates must be sleeping in their own rooms – peacefully, as if they hadn't violated I-Pin in the most revolting way possible.

Pulling herself shakily to her feet, she shoves all her emotions into a tiny little box at the back of her mind, and lets her brain go on auto-pilot, searching out her clothes.

It's easy to ignore her pain (she is a former hitman after all) as she pulls on her pants and shirt, not even stopping to bother with her bra, she's in that much of a hurry to get out.

Once she's all covered up, she stops only once, to pick up her phone which is sitting innocently on the nightstand, and then she's stumbling down the halls, cursing the tears running down her face as she prays to a God she doesn't believe in that she won't run into any of the house's residents.

Reaching the front door, she ignores her shoes and jacket completely as she steps out into the chilly autumn night.

And then she's running blindly down the street, not even paying attention to the direction she's going.

And when she finally stops running, her feet burning with pain from the uneven pavement, her lungs gasping for air, she collapses to the ground.

Her flames are going crazy, crackling and swirling violently around her.

She revels in the searing heat, imagining it burning away all the impurities.

The dirty looks, the dirty touches still ghosting along her skin, the ones she can still feel even though she can't remember.

And when her anger has burned out, she's left feeling hollow, empty.

Fumbling for the phone she has been clutching to her chest like a lifeline, she turns it on, and sees that she has four missed calls from her big brother.

He never calls this often, and a part of her feels guilty, for distracting him from his work, for worrying him.

But another, bigger, part of her needs him.

It's like she's a child again, and she just needs her big brother to make all the bad things go away – she needs him to make things better.

By the time she hits the call button, she's almost hysterical. She's crying so hard she can barely breathe.

"I-Pin?" he says as soon as he's picked up, and he sounds more worried than she's ever heard before. "Are you okay, bambina? What's happened?"

"T-Tsuna-nii!" she sobs, curling into a tight little ball and resting her head on her knees. "P-please. I've been hurt. I-"

And she can't continue, she's crying so hard.

There's a sharp intake of breath, and she can hear rustling on the other end.

"Where are you right now, tesora? I will send Takeshi to you immediately. How bad are your injuries? Do you need a sun?"

"No sun, papi. I'm in the neighbourhood just outside campus."

The sudden silence on the other end is deafening, and she can just see the wheels turning in her brother's head.

She only ever calls him 'papi' when she's feeling especially distressed. Of course, pain isn't usually enough to do that to her, and coupled with her current location (and the fact she doesn't need any suns), there really is only one possible reason for her call.

And she knows he's understood when next he asks her, "Should I send Chrome instead, cara?"

She hesitates only a moment before replying, "Si."

Tuna growls then, low and threatening, and it only makes her feel safer.

"She will be there in ten minutes, to be with you until the car arrives. Do you want me to send the other girls with the car to meet you too?"

"No, papi," she whispers. She hesitates again, then decides that she has the right to be a little selfish for now. "Can you come get me?"

"Of course," he says, no hesitation at all. "Should I come with the car? So you two can...talk?"

"Si, papi."

Approximately six minutes later, Chrome steps out of thin air next to her, and pulls I-Pin up into a fierce hug.

I-Pin is shocked at first, the action so at odds with the monstrous killing coming off of Chrome in waves, that she doesn't know how to react.

"Mia bambina," she whispers against her hair, her voice sounding close to tears, and I-Pin melts against her, letting the older woman support her weight, comfort her.

"It's all right now, mia cara," she whispers, running a hand through I-Pin's hair. "Mia tesora. Amore mia. It's all going to be alright. Shall I kill them for you? It would take only a second."

I-Pin shakes her head.

"No, sorella," she says.

Because there's a reason she left the mafia in the first place.

And Chrome seems to understand.

But that doesn't mean she's happy about it.

I-Pin is in her big brother's bedroom when they get the news.

It's been three days since The Incident, and she can count on one hand the number of times she's left Tsuna's rooms in that time.

And her brother, her fabulously amazing brother who can wave his hands and make all the bad go away, doesn't seem the least bit bothered by it.

That first night, after having Ryohei-nii give her a full check-up and soften the worst of the pain with his flames (Chrome had stayed with her throughout it all), Tsuna had led her back to his own room, where there were a fresh pair of pyjamas just waiting for her on his bed.

The fact that I-Pin falls asleep in his arms, in his bed, right away is a testament to how much she trusts him.

In the morning, he doesn't complain at all about the many times she woke him up in the night with her nightmares.

Instead, he smiles his gentle smile, and has her breakfast brought to her in bed, because she deserves some spoiling, he says.

Over the next few days, Chrome doesn't leave her side for more than a few minutes at a time.

They play board games and watch goofy cartoons together in Tsuna's room.

They even bathe together, and Chrome helps her apply the creams Ryohei had given her to help soothe the wounds she'd gotten.

I-Pin is nervous, at first, to have someone else's hands on her body again, but Chrome's touch is gentle and soothing, as it's always been, and she relaxes immediately.

I-Pin knows that, eventually, this will all have to end. She will have to go back to her classes, and deal with the crippling fear of seeing them again.

(She tries to ignore the part of her mind that she doesn't have to go back. Not if she really doesn't want to.)

And then, one day, she's still in bed, pretending to sleep as she listens to the reassuring sounds of her brother next to her, tapping away at his laptop keyboard (working, even now), and a knock comes on the door.

Forcing open here eyes, I-Pin props herself up, sharing a look with her brother.

"Come in!" he calls.

The door opens to reveal Hayato, standing stiff as a board, his expression furious.

There is killing intent rolling off him in waves, and I-Pin sits up, startled.

Chrome, who had been reading a book at Tsuna's desk on the other side of the room, looks up too, not looking the least bit happy, as if she just knows what Hayato is going to say.

"They are being suspended," he hisses through his teeth, as if even just saying the words is a strain on him. "For one month."

Chrome stands up with a wordless roar tearing from her throat, her book falling to the floor with a dull thud.

"What the FUCK?" demands Tsuna at the same time, standing up, his muscles tensed. "They deserve to be EXPELLED at the very LEAST."

I-Pin stares at her older siblings, and feels fear bubbling up inside her. Fear and disappointment.

Not at them, of course.

Never at them.

But at the school.

At the justice system.

Disappointment at the ones that were supposed to protect her.

She reaches out to grab Tsuna's hand, and the man immediately relaxes at her touch.

Turning, he lowers himself back onto the bed, and takes his face in both her hands.

"Worry not, tesora," he says, placing a kiss on her forehead. "We will take care of it. They will be expelled. And thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. And we will do it through perfectly legal means, alright, bella?"

I-Pin stares up at him, then at Chrome, who is pacing angrily back and forth, and then at Hayato, who is still standing in the doorway, every muscle in his body tense.

Placing her hand over Tsuna's, where it is still resting on her cheek, she looks back at her brother.

"I'm still so scared, Tsuna-nii. Can you make it stop? Can you make it go away?"

"Of course I can," he replies, without a hint of hesitation. "But I can't promise they will go unharmed if I do."

"That's alright," says I-Pin, smiling faintly at him.

Because if the law isn't going to stand on her side, then she'll find someone who will.

"Bring them to me," she says.

And Tsuna smiles a vicious smile, his eyes alighting with bloodlust.

"As you wish, bambina."

I-Pin is sitting in the "throne room" with Chrome when they arrive.

She had been fidgeting, trying to find a comfortable position (which was difficult due to her injuries), but as soon as the door opens, she's still again, sitting up with as much authority as she can muster.

Four young men, heads covered with cloth sacks, are frogmarched into the room by four of Tsuna's guardians, and I-Pin has to admit that she's impressed.

It's only been just over an hour since that conversation in her Tsuna-nii's bedroom,

Not that she's surprised at all – they are guardians after all.

As one, the guardians each push their respective captors to their knees, all lined up in a nice neat row in front of I-Pin.

And again as one, they pull the sacks off, leaving the men to blink at the bright lights and unfamiliar surroundings.

Their mouths are gagged, and their hands are tied behind them.

But despite their vulnerable positions, I-Pin still feels her breath catch in her throat, her heart thudding painfully in her chest.

"Are you alright, I-Pin?" asks Chrome from her side, pressing a hand to her shoulder.

I-Pin nods and forces herself to calm down.

They can't hurt her here.

Even if they somehow managed to get their hands loose, they would be killed by the guardians before they could even stand.

They're staring at her now, confused and more than a little terrified.

'Good,' she thinks. 'Let them be scared.'

"What would you like us to do to them, princessa?" purrs Mukuro, who happens to be the one that captured Nikkolai.

I-Pin settles back in her chair, her nose wrinkling at the sudden smell of ammonia permeating the air – it seems one of the boys has soiled himself.

She can not believe she has spent the past three days afraid of these men, these cowards who were only able to overpower her through numbers.

"Do whatever you want," she says, and a sly smile makes its way across Takeshi's face.

"First up," he says, catching the other guardians' attention. "We castrate them."

The others enthusiastically agree, ignoring their victims' scared sobbing.

Chrome steps closer, putting a hand on I-Pin's shoulder.

"Does this mean you're staying with us, bambina?"

She leans into her sister's side, and doesn't answer.

Two months into her college life, I-Pin Sawada decides that she would rather stay in the mafia after all.

The End

SkyGem: Thanks so much for reading this one-shot, my dear readers! It was a rather difficult one for me to write, what with its rather heavy subject, but I think I like how it came out. Please do leave a review and let me know what you thought! Ciao!